Fenian Notes

Government agencies in the USA are compiling and peddling information about people and groups. They are constructing information products by repackaging public records.

The ultimate role of public records in American society is being redefined for deleterious use. A vast storehouse of personal data gleaned from public records is being compiled to be used appropriately suiting the needs of controlling leaders. Records, though confidential, maintained by the Federal Government such as social security or income tax records are covered by the Privacy Act of 1972, and cannot be discussed; there are few prohibitions on the release of this information by state and local authorities.

If you are successful in blocking dissemination of one government database, this will not dissuade researchers from gleaning personal information from others.

All data bases would have to be shut down to be successful in protecting the individual or group and this defeats the stated policy of open government.

The volume of records and data is mushrooming almost out of control. Let us examine how data can be used and manipulated.

Suppose someone in a government agency took your social security number and opened an investigative file on you which stated in an internal document that you were under suspicion of exporting firearms to an unarmed foreign country.

Should you then apply for a position with the US government, this investigation would be revealed to the prospective employer, investigative files are not expunged even after innocence is proved.

INFORMATION SOLD

To make money, the government sells information to private concerns which compile information that they in turn sell. When open-records laws were first written, no one ever imagined you could manipulate a data base with thousands of names and addresses, and manipulate is always to our detriment.

Despite statements to the contrary, the law doesn’t offer much privacy protection and we have no automatic right to be let alone. The growing trend in technical capability to gather and collate personal data is overwhelming what once were preserves of privacy.

Privacy is not explicitly mentioned in the US Constitution and there are relatively few effective restrictions over how personal information is gathered and used. What we believe is protected often is not, in fact, information can be placed in file which is derogatory and intended to harm you.

There is no overarching law in the US that deals with the privacy of personal information. People do not have control over how their data is used, and whatever steps they do take to insure their own privacy, a file is being built on them somewhere that may or may not be accurate, such as credit reports which frequently contain errors.

Each separate file on you contains unique facts, but there is obviously some overlap. The government gathers and sorts information about you, but it also relies on private concerns to do the same. Some information services gathers information 24 hours a day, and there is interest in every possible low-grade fact.

Gathering information is perfectly legal — bringing together a wide array of facts from scattered sources, but a phenomenon known as data warehousing or data-mining represents another example of how traditional notions of personal privacy have been relegated obsolete, outrun by technology’s ability to peer into personal lives.

In moments, data warehouses can assemble electronic dossiers that give inquirers a clear look into the subjects needs, lifestyle and spending habits. Individuals have no control over facts that are gathered and disseminated about them.

Real data and information inserted into a dossier manipulated in a computer can create another character, half-real, but given a perception of utter reality. Law enforcement agencies do this to make an innocent person into a criminal, or a political dissident into a terrorist.

There has been an enormous transformation in information collection and use. The manipulation and mixing information in distorted ways is hidden from public view.

To deflect investigations and criticism government agencies contract with private information concern to gather information for them. The government sifts information to create a profile worthy of investigation.

In a creative profile, a word added, deleted or changed can alter the image of an individual. Criminals are created for special needs of those who would condemn them.

We true Republicans unalterably opposed to Treaty II have three governments and all their attending agencies against us. Add to that a media that is anti-Irish Republican and all the odds appear against us; however, the linchpin holding it all together is the Provo sell-out and that must in time bring it all down.

Clinton’s support of Treaty II is bolstered by the former Republican element in the US which has sold-out just as the Provos have and without that support Clinton could not be as free wheeling as he is in support of the partionist Treaty.

His ally, Gerry Adams, has been the persuader for partition and the Treaty which no embellished rhetoric can assuage. You either support a British withdrawal or partition.

It is in the interest of US policy to enhance the image of Gerry Adams who is deemed a key to the Treaty. Threat and harassment through means set out above will be the rule, not the exception in order for London, Dublin and Washington to protect Adams.

OBSESSED

The White House has employed a major investigative service which has a political section to gather facts on those opposed to their policies. With other problems, Clinton does not want to be accused of misusing government agencies, hence the private route.

The President’s staff looks into people’s lives for any reason it determines necessary for its own agenda and it uses the media to demonize opponents in the public eye. It maintains contacts in local areas to focus on Irish-American leaders in particular areas.

The task of investigative groups is to manipulate information and create a false impression about individuals so that official government agencies can then proceed to investigate and harass. Proof beyond a reasonable doubt is not in the least bit mandatory for investigators.

Does any of this dark scenario sound familiar? would the hint of Richard Nixon or Watergate ring a bell?.

President Nixon had his political enemies list which he used to pursue those who opposed him and his policies. Mr Nixon utilised the Justice Department, FBI, Internal Revenue Service and other federal organs to officially pursue Nixon’s enemies; the investigation itself is a threat.

We know the FBI to be a political police force and its late director, J Edgar Hoover, for half a century, made files available to Presidents when he wanted them to defeat enemies all of which endeared Hoover to those administrations .

Clinton today will use, more discreetly, the FBI, but we have visited his other resources to accomplish the same purpose.

The founder head of the administration’s favourite private investigative firm is heavily recruiting for its political sleuth section. Informers within Irish groups are to be sought in this lucrative business that is daily expanding as politics continue to go negative.

The White House is to blame for this Nixon style mean streak that has re-entered national politics. The negative style is a menace, but its strength lies, of course, in the money spent on it by the politicians, or by wealthy friends of politicians.

Privately, President Clinton has many friends who finance operations for him under their name as a business venture and it is legal. As we set out earlier, the resources are there and no one is immune from scrutiny.

Low grade information from many sources taken as a whole and manipulated changes someone’s persona and when memos of evaluation enter the database a subjective insertion suddenly becomes objective by the user.

MONITORED

For instance if an individual rents a series of movies regarding terrorism and is an Irish activist, a memo combines the two and suddenly the innocent person is an active supporter of terrorism and must be monitored by the FBI.

The FBI goes into airline passenger lists and finds this same individual has taken trips to Ireland and you know what that implies.

Suddenly, the individual’s employer is told that there is an employee under suspicion of international terrorism and his job security is under threat and all this started because he was publicly known to be opposed to Treaty II.

This dark scenario that has been portrayed is a warning that not only could this happen, it has already commenced, and to those who have sold out Irish freedom and unity who are snickering at those of us remaining true, do not snicker too loud because there are files on you as well.

Ms Guiner was nominated by friend and fellow classmate, Bill Clinton to head the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice.

This African-American woman came under immediate attack from the radical right because of her own personal political views. Clinton looked on helplessly as she was assaulted by a gang of thugs before finally joining in the attack himself.

People deserve their day in court and a vote which Guinier never received. If a close personal friend of the President gets kicked in the teeth, how will Irish activists fare, should they re-acquire a semblance of conscience and dare question any aspect of the Treaty?

British oppressors, American collaborators and Irish traitors will do all they can to stifle dissent and opposition and the truth. But the fools, the fools, the fools . . .

— Peadar Mac Fhínín BR Contents